2 self builds...

[JEJE]

Hello, 

 

we just wanted to introduce ourselves as we might be spending a lot of time on here!  My wife and I currently have at least 1 self build on the cards [we own a small Water Tower in Shropshire which we're converting as a weekend bolt hole for ourselves].  The other is hopefully for our family home; we have an opportunity to buy an old MOT station and convert it into a 4 bedroom house, the location is unorthodox to most, overlooked, backland strip etc etc, but we're not normal people, and we don't like normal buildings so it suits us, it's close to the train station, in a lovely conservation area and near the decent schools...and my favourite pub is 3 mins way.  This is the one I'm out of my comfort zone with as A: it would be the family home so a lot riding on it's success as a building, and B: we need to borrow a fair amount money to buy it and i'm not sure that is even possible yet as we're in the middle of a global pandemic, plus I own my own business so low-ish salary + dividends etc I fear the odds are stacked against us but it's one of those things we have to at least attempt. 

 

The Water Tower:

We own this one out right, it's is currently in for planning for the change of use - we did pre-application on this one and I'm pretty comfortable we have the backing of the planners, the conservation officer and pretty much the entire village it's in to get it converted and restore.  We were due to start works properly on it this spring but with everything that's been going on the scaffolders closed down, as did the local company who were making the windows so other than installing a new drain, removing some asbestos and doing some emergency lime and brickwork repair to the inside and ground floor external it's on hold until we know where we are at with the family home in the next few months. 

 

The MOT Station: 

So we don't own this yet, we know the owner well and the building is not on the market, and we have an option to buy on it subject to planning.  This site is contentious, but we have given it everything we can to try and do the best for the site, we've had very good engagement from the neighbours who have put in letters of support, and whilst with out local council anything could happen, I'm quietly optimistic it will gain permission...this is with the planners and due for a decision towards the end of August.  I've also had to detail & specify this project up to construction level to ensure we can build it for the money we want to spend - as you can imagine having got this far we're far too emotionally invested in this one if it all falls apart but that's the nature of the beast I guess!

 

I suspect I'll start a few threads over the coming weeks and annoy everyone immensely, in the meantime I'm attaching a picture of each of the offending buildings for you all to shake your heads at ? 

 

 

[ProDave]

Hi and welcome to the forum

 

I can see a lot of potential and problems for both those buildings.  They should keep you quiet for a while.

[Declan52]

Before you buy the mot station get a site investigation done. I done quite a few garages here in NI and the vast majority had a lot of contamination in the ground and the ground water. Most mechanics didn't worry about how they disposed of oil,petrol etc with most throwing it outside.

[ToughButterCup]

13 minutes ago, Declan52 said:

Before you buy the mot station get a site investigation done. ...

Here be dragons. Expensive dragons

[MikeSharp01]

2 hours ago, ToughButterCup said:

Here be dragons. Expensive dragons

Yes but dragons can be slain can't they, particularly with money.

 

PS Welcome to THE forum for self builders and like minded people

[DevilDamo]

4 hours ago, Declan52 said:

Before you buy the mot station get a site investigation done. I done quite a few garages here in NI and the vast majority had a lot of contamination in the ground and the ground water. Most mechanics didn't worry about how they disposed of oil,petrol etc with most throwing it outside.

If a SI is not carried out prior to the purchase or prior to the submission of a Planning application, the LPA will definitely request one be carried out and submitted to validate and/or formally determine the application.

[Temp]

Either of them subject to the CIl? Perhaps not?

Edited July 6, 2020 by Temp

[Mr Punter]

Both look OK at the right price.  If you don't have enough money you could go skint.  Do you have anywhere to sell?  If so, look at selling existing before you commit to buying.  Also, do an option on the MOT place, so you can get planning etc in place.  I have done a few contaminated sites and they are often not onerous to clean up but the fees cost a lot.

[JEJE]

We have had various site investigations done on both of the sites.  The MOT centre site is entirely concrete atm, test areas were limited, desk top study highligts oil is possible, and we're in an minor Radon area - the planners have agreed we can do physical soil tests post planning, and whilst we're expecting to find something we're not doing ground works for foundations as utilising the existing building so that hopefully covers off the worst of it, and we're removing around 1m of the depth of the forecourt for GSHP and topsoil, and we've assumed at least of that will be contaminated, if soil tests suggest it's worth and we need to do more we'll have to take a view before we sign our lives away.

 

No CIL on the Tower, Council have confirmed no CIL on the MOT subject to the usual live in it for 3 years etc.  Change of use hasn't happened yet on the Water Tower specifically to avoid the higher stamp on the expensive MOT station. 

 

It's worth noting [and don't shoot us] my wife and I are both Architects with specialisms in awkward money pits and historic buildings - which basically means we'll still fall into all the same traps that everyone else does, but when it's our clients we can say 'I told you so'.

 

For the water tower we're going to project manage a package at a time, theres no timescale on that and it will have next to no end value so thats purely a project for pleasure and I'm expecting to lose money on it - that said we've had a number of packages priced up now and to be honest it's no where near as bad as I was expecting, it helps that all the local companies know the building and everyone wants to work on it - the main unknown is the water tank which is a right pain to address - as this project has technically begun I'll set up a blog on progress so far. 

 

For the MOT station, if it pulls off [and I'm still only 30% sure it's possible] we know what our breaking even point is, we know a similar sized property is worth around £700-800k in that area.  We need to sell our current house to free up equity - theres £200-250k in our house depending what happens to the market in the next few months, I have access to 50-100k in the company, but the tax man will thrash me if I take that out in one hit but it's there for worst case/contingency, and we'd like to borrow around 500k for this build...all a bit very tight but we have excellent contacts for materials, second fix and contractors so it's doable on a good day if the stars align. 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 7, 2020 by JEJE